Michael Rives joined the Foreign Service in 1950 and served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Brazzaville from 1963 to 1966. In this excerpt from his oral history, he remembers the rather unforgettable Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. G. Mennen Williams, whose grandfather, Gerhard Heinrich Mennen, founded the Mennen line of men’s personal… Read More "Dancing with the Stars…And Stripes in the Congo"
A Hostage in Communist China, 1948-49
As Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army swept through China during the Civil War against the Nationalists in 1948 and 1949, it took over Mukden (now Shenyang), a major trade center. The Communists demanded that American Consul Angus Ward surrender the consulate’s radio transmitter. Ward refused. In response, PLA troops surrounded the consulate on November 20, 1948, putting Ward… Read More "A Hostage in Communist China, 1948-49"
An Itch for Politics: Breaking up a Protest in Unconventional Fashion
Politics can be a tough, even nasty business. James Jones describes an incident before he joined the Foreign Service when he worked as part of the advance team for Lady Bird Johnson and how one colleague had an unusual idea to dissuade unfriendly protesters. He was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy ADST starting in September… Read More "An Itch for Politics: Breaking up a Protest in Unconventional Fashion"
Harry Barnes: In an Episode Right Out of “Get Smart”
Harry Barnes had a distinguished Foreign Service career spanning 35 years, serving as Ambassador to India, Romania and most notably Chile. In this excerpt from his oral history, Ambassador Barnes recounts a story of surveillance and footwear in Romania that was mentioned in his Washington Post obituary. Read More "Harry Barnes: In an Episode Right Out of “Get Smart”"
On the night of 20–21 August 1968, the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia in order to quash the liberal reforms instituted by Alexander Dubcek during the Prague Spring. Over 200,000 troops and 5,000 tanks were sent in and were able to occupy the country the very first day. The… Read More "Blood on Ice: The 1969 Hockey Championships and Vengeance for Czechoslovakia"
CSI: Sao Paulo — The Search for the Angel of Death
Stephen F. Dachi had one of the more unusual — and as it turned out, fateful — backgrounds of anyone in the Foreign Service. Born in Hungary in 1933, he was three years old when his parents died, leaving him in the care of his grandparents in Romania. After emigrating to the U.S., he became a… Read More "CSI: Sao Paulo — The Search for the Angel of Death"
It was one of the most horrific events in U.S. diplomatic history. On August 7, 1998, between 10:30 and 10:40 a.m. local time, suicide bombers parked trucks loaded with explosives outside the embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi and almost simultaneously detonated them. In Nairobi, approximately 212 people were killed, and an estimated 4,000… Read More "The U.S. Embassy Nairobi Bombings"